What's All This Then?

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What's All This Then?

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Ring Trilogy

Field-Tested by Dave Santorum-Crespo

in Hertfordshire, England

At the age of nine, I became ill with bronchitis, with hypothermia following. I spent over a month recovering. My bedroom and senses were soaked in eucalyptus and menthol by my Spanish grandmother. After reading The Hobbit just before the illness, I was determined to read The Fellowship of the Ring. I couldn’t stop. I finished it in a week, begged siblings to borrow The Two Towers and The Return Of The King from the local library, and promptly read them all (admittedly struggling with The Return of the King).

Now, the name J.R.R. Tolkien or anything reminding me of the story, the name of the trilogy, causes a pleasant cooling sensation in my nose and the taste of eucalyptus on the back of my tongue. I’ve re-read the books and enjoyed them, but the brain always plays the same trick on me — it’s happening now, even as I write this, and I wonder how long that particular combination of synapses has been burning that pathway. My memories of the ‘place’ are dark — which makes me distrust them and think they were being warped at the time by the writing and the illness.

Dave Santorum-Crespo is a freelance artworker based in London.

Buy The Ring Trilogy